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December 28th, 2009 Press release: Aflague and Shanahan join Blue Marble Beat New lineup makes live sound as lush and layered as recordings Saxophonist Buck Aflague and guitarist Éamonn Shanahan add their sounds to the Triangle's favorite reggae-infused rock and soul band. Our new brothers will phase into the live shows beginning at The Hive in Raleigh on January 17th. "Polyrhythm is at the heart of our music," says Blue Marble Beat vocalist Derek Brinson. "Less mature musicians might be tempted to fill every open space with sound. So, one of many reasons for Éammon's appeal is his proven ability to recognize what one does not play is as important as what one plays. In other words, he can function outside of the Jam band aesthetic." "Having Buck in the band gives us the ability to paint with a more colorful sonic palette," says bass guitarist Thomas Szypulski. "We now have a horn section of two individuals with a proven track record of playing as a rhythmic unit and as melodic soloists. Buck'll help keep feet lifting off the dance floor." -Ski
December 13th, 2009 Rise up, children! As this busy year winds down we just want to thank you all for spending it with us. Some high points, some low points and a whole lot in the middle make me look forward to 2010. A couple nights ago we performed at The FlipSide in Clayton with our brothers and sister in Dread34. BMB opened the show and had a lot of fun running through an hour of all original music. dB's new amp sounded crisp and clear through our set, a clarion call to celebrate the evening while it lasted.
As always, Cliff and Jodi were the best hosts in Clayton and Rich and the rest of the staff made us feel like rock stars. They always do. Thanks to Marble(Dread)heads Stephanie, James, Jill, Elizabeth, Tracy, Amy, Caryn, Kathy, Lane, Deb, Mark, Joel, Amanda, Wrecked At Breakfast, Holly, Erik and all the rest. We had fun because you had fun.
Thanks to Mark Duncan of Dread34 for the snap!
And dig our newly released song, Waiting In Babylon!Lyrics: Ski and dB
Music: dB, Fammon, Ski, D-dubz
Lead vox, guitar: dB
Trumpet: Fammon
Bass: Ski
Harmony vox: Mary Walsh
Drums, percussion, loops: D-dubz
Engineering: D-dubz
Production/mastering: D-dubz, Scott @ Loud and Clear We (finally) released this song on Friday morning and by Saturday morning it had begun to break the record for downloads from the BMB server. At the risk of being absolutely crass, lemme suggest you download your copy before we exceed our monthly bandwidth limits. Lastly, we in Blue Marble Beat wish you and yours a joyous holiday season. We'll see you again in 2010 and we'll have a surprise or two in store for you in January. -Ski
December 1st, 2009 Whoah. Where did November go? I don't usually miss a blog update for a month or more. I've just been that busy. The ironwood trees outside my window went from green to orange to brown to bare since I last banged out some words here. It's more than just the usual holiday rush, too. We've a lot going on with the band.
So, let's catch up.
I told you about recording Waiting In Babylon. We've shipped it off to be mastered and are awaiting, with bated breath, its return from Loud and Clear. The first mix wasn't quite where we wanted it to be but we know Scott can make it perfect.
We got the discs from our Papa Mojo's show and, though there are some gems from that performance, it turns out there's nothing we want to release for fear of stealing the thunder from studio versions of the very same tunes. We're sitting on top of Way Down Inna Hole until dB gets his head and hands around the piano solo. We've got the bass guitar on One Eye complete, as well as on Dub From Ipanema and Thanks Man. We have scratch vox on Thanks Man, too.
We're swinging our musical pendulum back a bit more towards reggae and ska but we'll also maintain quite a bit of the modern urban sound we've cultivated these past few seasons. We'll scale back our performances a bit over the winter to write some new original music and to learn some new cover tunes, too.
We'll also be incorporating a pair of new brothers into the band, but more on all that later.
Our next show's going to be an absolute party. We're playing a double-bill with Dread34 at The FlipSide in Clayton in just a bit less than a fortnight. BMB will open the show on Friday, December 11th and play about an hour before the other six members of D34 join us on stage for the balance of the evening. The Dread34 reunion shows last spring and summer were so much fun we wanted to do one more before closing out 2009.
So, let me just take a few lines here to thank the Marbleheads in attendance at our most recent shows. We played Oliver Twist in Raleigh on Saturday October 24th and had a blast partying with Mary, Sinclair, Jim, Tracy, Robert, Laura, Leslie, Marsha, Burt, Lance, Amy, Caryn, Tara, Dawn, Jill, Melissa, Oksana and Stephanie. Thanks, y'all. And thanks to Steve and Gigi for bringing us back. We hope to see you again soon in 2010.
At Bean and Barrel in Chapel Hill we partied with Pam and Sam, Pam and Tim, Jill, Tracy, Amy, Caryn and Ignacio and Stephanie on Saturday, November 7th. We met some new friends that night and we look forward to seeing David and Rena and a lot of other folks again soon. Clayton, maybe? Thanks to Brian and "Tinkerbell" for taking such good care of us and to Jason for booking us back again at Bean And Barrel.
-Ski
October 19th, 2009 Recording. You know how we love to arrange and rearrange electrons on a hard drive. We've been doing a bit of that over the past few days. Last Friday we played at Papa Mojo's Roadhouse in Durham and recorded our sets there. Still awaiting an audition of the record, though. We had a good time and I hope that translates to the record. There was a lot of chair dancing going on by the very diverse audience and they seemed to really dig on both our original music and our interpretations of other folks' tunes. Dub From Ipanema really went over well. Glad you enjoyed it so, Mike! Oh, and the food. Holy expletive! Mel and his chefs can cook. Best eats I've had before a show in months. I'm gonna have to get there some Sunday morning for brunch but I'll likely have to wait till the end of one of my vegan fortnights to be able to afford it on so many levels.
Thanks to Marbleheads Chris, Melissa, Eliza, Henry and Jim, Don, Mike and Tracy, Stephanie, Celena and Clenita for partying with us. Thanks to Diane for booking us, to the kitchen crew for feeding us and to Robbie for running our live sound and recording the show. We hope to be back soon!
Saturday night D-dubz, dB and I went to Studio Sea and re-recorded some vocals for Waiting in Babylon. Yeah, seems an apt title, doesn't it? You've been waiting to hear it for almost a year now. It's kind of a funny song in that we debuted it on our first show in this incarnation of the band, but we've just never gotten a recording of it we all liked. The vox we re-tracked Saturday night were more emotive than but no less musical than those dB laid down many months ago and he pretty much nailed them but we somehow acquired a glitchy noise across some of the parts that will require yet another pass. Dang.
Afterwards, dB and I drifted downtown to Marsh Woodwinds. The place is down on Person St. now and has a performance space on the top floor. Wow. It's really nice and comfy. I'm unsure it'd be right for a BMB performance, but I really want to shoot a video of us there. For the show Saturday night it was perfect. We went to hear Geisha Hit Squad. GHS is Eric Jennings' newest musical outlet, an acoustic duo. Eric played guitar in Dread34 with us back until he moved to Atlanta in 2003. It was great to see and hear him do his thing again. Dig them online and live when you get the chance.
I drove home through downtown Raleigh and found myself passing 612 West St., the former home of West Street Recording. West Street was the first real recording studio I ever visited. I learned a lot making music with my good friend EG Peters at West Street. I had lots of good times there and it seems so long ago now, twenty years or more. I thought about Dayna and Fred and Total Eclipse and smiled.
Come see BMB this weekend at Oliver Twist in north Raleigh and I'll smile for you, too.
-Ski
October 13th, 2009 Quickie. This one's just a quick little note to thank all the folks who made last Saturday evening's show at Broad Street Cafe in Durham possible. First we want to thank Shimer Gradus for sitting in on the drums. For me, personally, it was like a cool flashback to a decade ago when Shimer and I played together in Leaning Owen. Thanks, man. We really couldn't have played that show without you!
We also want to thank all the Marbleheads in attendance including Trena and Shayan, Pam and Sam, Stephanie, Jill, Lydia, Tom, Caryn, Elizabeth, Amy and Summer, Grant and Nichole.
Also, thanks to Mysti Mayhem for sharing her webcast with us and introducing Blue Marble Beat to her loyal online audience, to Stefan and Three Days in Vegas for inviting us aboard the bill, to Cameron for booking us and feeding and beering us, and to Lance for running sound.
And thanks to US Airways for getting D-dubz back home in time for Friday's Papa Mojo's gig! See you then.
-Ski
September 27th, 2009 Catching up. Watch this video.
D-dubz says, "You gotta watch this. It's fascinating... I realize now why my music listening choices have completely changed to almost exclusively independent radio over the past few years. I thought it was me getting older, but now I think it was I wasn't getting what originally interested me in music in the first place, diversity."
dB says, "I've seen several sites containing similar (and I lived some of it), but this particular video presentation was riveting.
Bonus points for Ani DiFranco, the Godmother of the I am a MF'ing label mindset. Double Score for ChuckD, the Godfather of Hip-Hop (and the evolution of Rap Music into culture, instead of merely marketing)."
I say this is what SparkCon was all about. Last Thursday, September 17th, we released at long last (Come Get Some of) This online in celebration of SparkCon, the annual celebration of Raleigh as the creative hub of the southeastern United States. If you're reading this blog and haven't downloaded This and all our other online songs, go do that now!
We have thirteen songs you can download. Why do we do this? Because we can. We want you to hear our music and dig on it and make it your own. Then, once you are sufficiently motivated to get up on your dancing feet, come to our shows.
Our first SparkCon show was on the main stage Friday, September 18th. We had a terrific time getting the folks leaving work downtown to dance on their way by and absolutely filling up downtown with our music. Folks told us they heard us from several blocks away in all directions and we were clear enough for them to recognize us. Shout outs to Mary, Sarah, Chris, Xopher and Aly for hosting and arranging the events and our parts of them, to Steve, Stephanie, Kraze, Corey, Mike E. Hype, Jill, Taylor, Emma, Madeline, Nathaniel, Tracy, McKinley, Jordan, Joanne, Jordan and Noah for digging on the sound, to Anne-Marie for her help with video and to Steve from Guth Audio for engineering and mixing our sound.
Opening the festival on the main stage made us feel like rock stars. Big stage, big sound, big open area with lots of people diggin' what we do, the sense of anticipation in the air was palpable and the excitement continued all weekend.
We played a show at Ruckus Pizza and Bar in Raleigh on Saturday September 19th. The audience seemed particularly jaded and we did our best to shake them out of their funk and get them involved in ours.
We didn't end up being the only entertainment. Two college boys got so blasted that they passed out on the bar. The beertender called the cops and when RPD arrived they tenderly awakened the lads and gently coaxed them on their way.
No, really. I'm not being facetious. It seems RPD's had some sensivity training since last I saw them handle such a situation. When I was in college, not only did we walk to class barefoot in the snow uphill both ways, but when RPD arrived to roust a couple drunks, they'd drag them into the back of a squad car and lock them in the drunk tank for the night or the weekend or until they sobered up. I guess some lawyer in Raleigh decided to let Darwin sort this kind of thing out, instead.
Thanks to Joel for booking us, to Carlos for beering and engineering us and to the brave and compassionate boys in blue from RPD who took a few moments to dig our vibe before tending their less mobile and less vertical charges.
The next afternoon, Sunday September 20th, we played a set at the 12th Annual Carrboro Muisc Festival. We opened the festivities at The Cat's Cradle. Thanks to Frank and his sound crew and to Gerry and his festival staff for making us feel like rock stars for the second time that weekend. We partied with Marbleheads Dilip, Stephanie, Stephanie, Ken, Don, Ron, Ras J and his girls, Karen, Kathryn, Evan, Janice, Ray, Becca, Matthew, Clark, and Jessica.
We didn't spend the usual amount of time at this year's CMF. We had to beat feet back across town to our next gig, closing out SparkCon's musical menu at Two T's back in Raleigh. We were treated to an opening set by Beat Congress. They're Xopher Thurston, Eric Broadway and a couple other local noatbles from Crucial Fiya delivering some instrumental reggae and Caribbean jazz and it was beautiful.
Thanks to those boys for warming up the audience. Thanks to DJ OS for helping us engineer a kluged but effective and operable interface to the house sound system. Thanks to Corey for booking us. We'd sure like to come back sometime! Thanks to Stephanie for all her usual support and to all the staff and patrons at Two T's who likely got into work late on Monday after partying late into the night with us.
Our festival weekend rocked. If anyone out there managed to snap some pix of us or to capture some video of any of our performances, and we sure saw a number of cameras clicking away, please get in touch. We'd love to see what you got.
See you in a couple weeks at Broad Street Cafe in Durham.
-Ski
Photos by Stephanie Dudley Goulet and Chris Bushnell.
September 17th, 2009 Come Get Some of This! Dig our newly released song, (Come Get Some of) This.
Lyrics: dB
Music: dB, Fammon, Ski, D-dubz
Lead vox, guitar, gong, Dr. Hawking: dB
Trumpet: Fammon
Bass, clavinet: Ski
Drums, percussion, loops: D-dubz
Engineering: D-dubz
Production/mastering: D-dubz, Scott @ Loud and Clear It's available atop our Listen page. We're releasing it today in celebration of SparkCon. It's gonna be a terrific weekend! -Ski
September 1st, 2009 Pwned. It's been nearly a week since we played at The Black Flower in Raleigh last Thursday night and I'm still unsure how to address this blog entry. I wrote 'played,' not 'performed.' I think I got that part right. We were two different bands that night. We performed what may have been our best set ever, that first set, and during the second set we played what may have been our worst set ever.
All in the span of a single evening. Man, I'm glad we didn't do the third set.
Without going into the wherefores and whys of the situation let me just apologize to those of you who stuck with us into, or even through, the second set. We let you down. We embarassed you and ourselves and our host. I can speak for the other guys in the band when I tell you we are mortified. We squandered an opportunity and we are well aware of our mistakes.
This is our public apology to you. I've already apologized to Jamie. In fact, we refused payment. We couldn't take money for that show. We are seasoned professionals and we failed to live up to our own standards.
Lemme just give Jamie a series of kudos here. First, he wanted to pay us even after I refused, saying he'd never not paid a band. I told him we'd never not earned it. Then he told me he'd had to turn the PA off when another band had performed even more poorly than we had. Jamie's a really nice guy, a great bar owner/manager and he's gonna be on top of this town someday soon and I hope the band can somehow salvage what I'd hoped to turn into a mutually advantageous relationship.
I appreciated his comiseration, but add up the ages of the guys in that other band and it comes out to less than half of our own total. We're too experienced to make the kind of rookie mistakes we made last Thursday, or at least to let ourselves get away with them.
It won't happen again.
Seems I've written that before, right after our show at The Juggling Gypsy. So there're two places to which we have to go back and redeem ourselves. Maybe we'll book a mea culpa tour one weekend.
Maybe my own expectations are too high and my own standards simultaneously too strict. I believe no band is any better than its last show, including the bands I'm in. dB disagrees with me and reminds me this is a game of attrition and the bands who are consistent as well as persistent are those that achieve noteworthiness. Well, now our persistence is a bit ahead of or consistency.
We hope to bring our batting average up later this month. We've a series of shows on what we're calling Festival Weekend, the 18th through the 20th. That weekend includes two performances at SparkCon, a third at Ruckus in Raleigh and a fourth show at the Carrboro Music Festival. See you there. We'll be the ones wearing sackcloth and ashes.
-Ski
August 8th, 2009 Busy. It's been a busy past few days for BMB. We did three performances in a week, starting with a mini set at The Black Flower in Raleigh on Wednesday July 29th. We rolled in there, all four of us this time, without the usual electronics and played some BMB faves "naked." Donald and I stayed after to jam with the house band and some of the other open mic participants. I got to hang out with my friend Dave whom I hadn't seen in way too long a time. He's the one that does the more than credible Brian Johnson impression.
Then on the following Saturday, August 1st, we played the long-n-strong at The FlipSide in Clayton. Donald had wanted to go by The Blue Martini and sit in with our buddy Paul the night we jammed at The Flower but we stayed too late. Donald had been itching to play The Girl From Ipanema with Paul, so in rehearsal Dewey, dB and I laid down a dubstyle reggae groove for Dollo to solo on top of. We had such a good time with it we played it early in the set at The FlipSide, calling the tune Dub From Ipanema. The audience seemed to dig but I don't know if anyone really got the joke. Didn't seem to be many jazz heads in the audience and we were all traveling without our usual entourage that night.
The crowd was thinner than our last stop at The FlipSide but we all had a good time. Thanks to Elizabeth, Aubry, Joe, Russ and Yoko, Dawn and George for partying with us. I ran into my old friend Shimer on the way out and I think he'll be sitting in with us for a show or two in the autumn. Thanks to Cliff and Jodi for having us back at The FlipSide and thanks to the bar and kitchen staff who took such good care of us all night long.
Last Tuesday, August 4th, we played a show at Local 506 in Chapel Hill with Bob Funck and the New World Heroes. Wow, Bob and the Heroes were really great. Tight harmonies, passionate delivery, I really dug on their set. I hope we play with them again soon. Thanks to Hank for beering us and it was good to see Stephanie feeling better and back in the audience.
We've a bit of time between now and our next show and we're gonna try to deliver a few surprises. So as not to risk saying those famous last words, "hey, y'all, watch this," I'll keep the goings-on on the QT.
At least for a little while.
-Ski
July 21st, 2009 Oliver Twisted! Dang, that was fun! Saturday night BMB played Oliver Twist in Raleigh and it was a total bash! That place may be the nicest bar in which I've ever played music. Comfy atmosphere, good sound, Guinness on tap.
We had an interesting and fun opening act. Bellydancers. Kind of gave me an idea for a video for our song Jihaudio.
We did some set list shuffling since our last show, moving some songs to the guitar set from the keyboard set, and vice versa. We've also been paying close attention to updating many of the cover songs we play into a style more our own than that of the original artists. It seems to be paying off. We saw a lot of people at OT's chair dancing before they got up on the dancefloor. That's why we do what we do, to make you dance. Don't fight it. Embrace it!
Thanks to Tracy for snapping photos. Dig the pix!
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July 16th, 2009 Flower power. Just got in from The Black Flower in Raleighwood. dB, Donald and I sat in with the house band for a few songs. Thanks to Scotty B, Eric and Shane for accompaniment and gear use. Thanks to Jamie for booking a BMB show in August. We had a great time and look forward to being back on stage at The Black Flower. -Ski
July 13th, 2009 Having some fun. Dig these pix.
See you this Saturday at Oliver Twist!
-Ski
July 5th, 2009 Feast or famine. We played Slim's in Raleigh last night. It was a very intimate show with a very small audience. We had a great time and debuted some new music. Thanks to Chris for beering and PAing us. Thanks to Mark for booking us. Thanks to Marbleheads Elly, Marty, Jill, Tracy, Melissa, Oksana, Mike, Stephanie, Alexander and
Shane for partying with us.
-Ski
June 26th, 2009 Get Naked
Lyrics: Ski
Music: dB, Fammon, Ski, D-dubz
Lead vox, guitar, gong: dB
Trumpet: Fammon
Bass, loops: Ski
Drums, percussion, loops: D-dubz
Harmony vox: Mary Walsh
Engineering: D-dubz
Production/mastering: D-dubz, Scott @ Loud and Clear
June 17th, 2009 Shut Up and Dance
Lyrics: dB and Ski
Music: dB, Fammon, Ski, D-dubz
Lead vox, piano, mashup, guitar synth: dB
Trumpets: Fammon
Bass: Ski
Drums, percussion, loops: D-dubz
Harmony vox: Mary Walsh
Engineering: D-dubz
Production/mastering: D-dubz, Scott @ Loud and Clear
June 15th, 2009 Beach blast!
Hey Sundogs! We had a blast! Next time, when peeps jump up on the bars and tables to dance, remember to grab your drinks! It just seems to work better for all involved, that way.
-dB
We played Sundogs in Corolla last Saturday. As dB said, we had a total blast. I love playing for vacationers. When people are out to have a good time and let no one stop them, they're my kind of audience. It takes some pressure off and makes me have a good time, too. Those good times feed off each other and everyone in the room ends up having lots of fun.
We debuted a new song (or rather a new version of an old song), Jihaudio, on Saturday night and the audience really dug on it.
Thanks to John, Mark, Linda, Craig and the Boston peeps, Hotties One, Two and Three, George Lucas, Stephanie, the Birthday Girls and all our new friends. We'll be back!
And remember to stop back by this website on Wednesday for the release of "Shut Up and Dance!"
-Ski
June 10th, 2009 The rumors are true. It's been a year since Blue Marble Beat released any new music, but the wait is nearly over. One week from today, Wednesday June 17th, 2009, we'll post the MP3 of Shut Up and Dance for your downloading pleasure. Marbleheads get first dibs! Stay tuned! -Ski
June 8th, 2009 I am Ironman! Or, rather, D-dubz is. Most of us in BMB played two shows last Saturday. One at Millstock in Clayton with the rest of Dread34 and then a BMB show that evening at Ruckus Pizza and Bar in Raleigh. Dewey played a third show with his other band, Creedmoor, Saturday afternoon.
I think we all had a great time, though by the end dB was feeling ill. Fammon spoke across the stage to him during load-in at Ruckus calling, "Hey, dB!" dB misheard him and called back, "It's not TB!"
We debuted some music on Saturday night we'd not played before as BMB. We took out some of the slower and more loungey selections from our keyboard set and replaced them with a bit more reggae and ska from the set we'd played earlier in Clayton. The audiences in both places seemed to dig. I was really happy to see Ruckus as full as it was Saturday night. I think there were more people in there than at our last five shows combined. It felt great to play in front of a sizeable and appreciative crowd.
A couple people told me we were the best band they'd ever heard at Ruckus. One guy pulled me aside and said, "You know, a lot of bands play here and we listen and applaud, but a lot of the time we're just scratching our heads trying to figure out what it is they're trying to do. It's obvious with you guys and we like your music." That was good to hear.
We'd like to thank the Ruckus crew for having us. Thanks to Joel for booking us and to Carlos for taking care of our libational requirements and helping us set up. Thanks to attending Marbleheads Stephanie, Dennis, Mark, Erica, Chris and Lynn, Chris B., his wife and cousin, Elizabeth and Audrey. Special props to Tambourine Girl!
We're beaching it this weekend in Corolla, NC and playing Sundogs Saturday night. If you're on the outer banks this week, look up in the sky at that airplane dragging the Blue Marble Beat banner and come see the show.
And stay tuned. We have something special happening real soon.
-Ski
May 26th, 2009 Curry. We played the Wilmington Exchange Festival last night. It was season 13 for that event and we'd like to thank Cammeron for booking us and Jim for running the boards and making us sound great. Thanks to the Marbleheads who attended including Josh, Stephanie and Mary. Thanks also to the bar tender who's name I ashamedly admit to forgetting. She took good care of us.
I got to the Soapbox early enough to get a good parking space and have a beer. I walked down Front Street a couple blocks and grabbed some Jamaican food at Caribbay Soul. I may never get that Caribbay Soul curry out from under my fingernails and I'm not complaining about that! I judge curry like Homer Simpson judges barbecue sauce.
When I returned to the Laundrolounge all the guys had arrived and, as we awaited our turn on stage, we were given the surreal experience of what I think may have been the absolutely worst ever public performance by a band. And I use the terms band and performance loosely and kindly. I'm still contemplating the incredibly childish, pathetic and antisocial behavior of the wretches who preceded us last evening and have decided that pity is the right reaction. Pity and a fervent hope the young woman in the group gets out of that relationship before she suffers any permanent damage.
I wish we could've heard Soultron, instead.
I dig Wilmington like no other city, except maybe London, and hope to return to make more music soon!
-Ski
April 18th, 2009 Itchy twitchy. The guys were in the studio again last night and got a lot of work done. I finished my parts a few weeks ago, so I stayed out of the way. I'm no fun in the studio without a load of work to do. Donald tells me they captured some "cool shtuff" and I can't wait to hear it all and share it with you. In the meantime, here's an older song that never found its way onto our listening page. Dig In Between Days. -Ski
April 2nd, 2009 Anticipation. We're almost there. We were in the studio last night. dB laid down the lead vox on (Come Get Some of) This and we all recorded parts for Get Naked. We ought to be able to share these two with you very soon and several others soon thereafter.
We decided to add Get Naked to the recording list after the reception that song got last Saturday when we played it at The FlipSide in Clayton. We had a good time playing it and the audience really dug on it, too. The audience usually digs on what we do at The FlipSide. I think that's one reason we love to play there. Of course, the friendliness and hospitality of the owners, staff and patrons is a big part of it as well. We always feel so welcome and comfortable there.
Thanks to Cliff and Jodi and all the staff for having us back again and treating us like rock stars. We've been playing The FlipSide for years and it's the only club in Clayton we play. And that's our choice.
Thanks to all the Marbleheads in attendance like Stephanie, Jill, Tracy, Lisa and Emily. Lisa and Emily came out because they heard us on NPR a few weeks ago. We're really getting mileage out of that 20 minutes we hung out with Frank Stasio!
Dan Stahl forwarded me the following a couple days ago and I thought you might get a kick out of it. Dig:
(Attributed to Tony Levin)
It was a Fender probably a Precision, but it could have been a Jazz---nobody knows. Anyway, it was very old. Definitely pre-CBS. And God looked down upon it and saw that it was good. He saw that it was very good, in fact, and couldn't be improved upon at all (although men would later try). And so He let it be and He created a man to play the bass. And lo, the man looked upon the bass, which was a beautiful sunburst red, and he loved it. He played upon the open E string and the note rang through the earth and reverberated throughout the firmaments. Thus reverb came to be. And it was good. And God heard that it was good and He smiled at His handiwork. In the course of time, the man came to slap upon the bass. And lo, it was funky. And God heard this funkiness and He said, "Go, man, go." And it was good. And more time passed, and, having little else to do, the man came to practice upon the bass. And lo, the man came to have upon him a great set of chops. And he did play faster and faster until the notes rippled like a breeze through the heavens. And God heard this sound that sounded something like the wind, which He had created earlier. It also sounded something like the moving of furniture, which He hadn't even created yet, and He was not so pleased. And He spoke to the man, saying, "Don't do that!" Now the man heard the voice of God, but he was so excited about his new ability that he slapped upon the bass a blizzard of funky notes. And the heavens shook with the sound, and the Angels ran about in confusion. (Some of the Angels started to dance, but that is another story). And God heard this---how could He miss it---and lo, He became bugged. And he spoke to the man, and He said, "Listen man, if I wanted Jimi Hendrix I would have created the guitar. Stick to the bass parts." And the man heard the voice of God, and he knew not to mess with it. But now he had upon him a passion for playing fast and high. The man took the frets off the bass that God had created. And the man did slide his fingers upon the fretless fingerboard and play melodies high upon the neck. And in his excitement, the man did forget the commandment of the Lord, and he played a frenzy of high melodies and blindingly fast licks. And the heavens rocked with the assault and the earth shook, rattled and rolled. Now God's wrath was great. And his voice was thunder as He spoke to the man. He said, "OK for you, pal. You have not heeded My word. LO, I shall create a soprano saxophone and it shall higher than you can even think of. "And from out of the chaos I shall bring forth the drums. And I shall make you to always stand by the drummer, and he shall play so many notes thine head shall ache. You think you're loud? I shall create a stack of Marshall guitar amps to make thine ears bleed. And I shall send down upon the earth other instruments, and lo, they shall all be able to play higher and faster than the bass. "And for all the days of man, your curse shall be this: that all the other instruments shall look to you, the bass player, for the low notes. And if you play too fast or too high all the other musicians shall say 'wow', but really they shall hate it. "And they shall tell you you're ready for your solo career, and they shall find other bass players for their bands. And for all your days if you want to play your fancy licks you shall have to sneak them in like a thief in the night. "And if you finally do get to play a solo, everyone shall leave the bandstand and go to the bar for a drink." And it was so. -Ski
March 23, 2009 Confidence. I feel like we're back to that level we were cruising just before we left for our show at The Gypsy. We played a show that felt great last Saturday night at Bean and Barrel. It was intimate but energetic. We debuted some new arrangements. The musical electronics were fully functional. We had a partisan crowd and that seasonal ABV stout rocked!
Thanks to Jason for booking us and to Amanda and Ruth for taking such good care of us, refreshmentwise.
Thanks to Marbleheads Jeff, Cindy, Daniel, Gabe, Sandy, Alex, Jill, Emma, Madeline, Nathaniel, Tracy, McKinley, Jordan, Stefan and Jeannine and their daughter, Karen, Stephanie, Pam, Sam, Anne, Chip, Shayan and Chelsea and all the rest for partying with us.
I'm in the midst of making a new page on MySpace. The band's been very successful at using MySpace as a marketing tool. Maybe even too successful. With the recent changes to the friends and event apps over there it's become nearly impossible to sort through more than twelve thousand friends across the globe to tell folks in Chapel Hill or Durham that we're playing locally in a couple weeks.
If you've been a local MySpace Marblehead you'll soon get an invitation to be friends with Marbleheads North Carolina. This new page is an attempt to reconnect with those people we're likely to see on a regular basis at shows, who'll likely listen to us on local radio and whose events we're likely to attend. Like I said, you'll get an invite soon, but don't be afraid to beat the rush and join up yourself.
Thanks for being a Marblehead!
-Ski
March 16th, 2009 Durham rocks! We were back in the Bull City for the second time in as many days last Saturday night. We played a double bill with Rootzie at The Broad Street Café. What a great place full of nice people and wonderful food, drink and music. I can't wait to go back.
We did our part, once again, to alleviate the drought in central North Carolina. It freakin' poured. But that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the audience nor that of the performers. Man, Rootzie's just the most fun to share a stage with. We got to stretch out and relax and have a great show once again. It felt magnificent. We debuted some new material and were pleased with its reception. We're working hard to really define our sound and the new stuff going over so well means you dig.
Thanks to Gregory for setting up the event. Thanks to Cameron for booking us and to Amy for beering and fooding us. Stefan made us sound great. Thanks, man! Thanks to Pam and Sam, Stephanie, Jeannine, Eric and Chris, Dave for hanging out with us. Props to Rootzie for warming up the crowd and staying to check us out. Thanks to Herb, Bob, Tony and Carolyn, Mary for singing a tune with us, and Calvin and Emily just because.
-SkiMarch 13th, 2009 Redemption. We just had a great time as the weekly musical guests on WUNC's The State of Things! Thanks to Frank and Lindsay for making us feel right at home. Thanks to Robin and Al for making us sound good. Thanks to Cecilia for her patient direction from front door to studio. I haven't heard the webcast yet, but if the radio audience was diggin' us like the studio crew were, we did okay! See you tomorrow night at Broad Street Café! -Ski
February 13th, 2009 Catharsis. There comes a time when change hits your blindside and you feel foolish for missing the clues it was coming. When choices are emotionally driven and those emotions are strong and they range very quickly between polar opposites, you start to consider inevitability. You certainly question your own power to foresee and to control events.
Okay. Maybe you don't, but I do.
It all started out Friday night, February 6th, with a standing room only Dread34 show at The FlipSide in Clayton. We got to hang out and play music with lots of old friends in front of a crowd that was ravenous. That show was paradigmatic for a successful bar gig. All four of us BMBers walked out of there well fed, well beveraged, well paid, with three-day smiles on our faces though completely exhausted.
Fammon, D-dubz and I met up the next afternoon for the ride to our show at The Juggling Gypsy in Wilmington riding maybe just a little higher than we should've. We laughed and joked the whole way to the beach, sure in the knowledge that the Blue Marble Beat show that night would be exactly the same as the Dread34 gig the night before.
Apples and oranges on so many levels.
dB cruised into Wilmington a few minutes before we did and we met him at The Gypsy. As I walked into the room I got a really good vibe. I felt like I'd walked onto a movie set. The lighting, the layout, the textures all made me want to shoot a video there. Amy, Brian and Denny warmly welcomed us and as we set up and performed a souncd check I was anticipating another rockstar evening.
Our opening act, The Groove Campaign, arrived and we asked them to please use as much of our equipment as they liked as it was already set up, tested and dialed in. They set up and put on a terrific show, both material and presentation, setting the bar higher than I felt we were able to clear all night.
Then it was our turn and it all started to come apart. Of course the PA levels were all different than we'd set them and rather than stopping to reset everything we tried to massage the sound as we played. We didn't want to risk losing the folks who'd turned out to see us while we completely reset the PA.
We should've taken that risk.
The sound on the stage was horrible. I couldn't hear my bass or the vocals over dB's guitar and dB couldn't hear the vocals nor his guitar over my bass. We couldn't get the keys loud enough to hear on stage and the resultant audio wash kept us from effectively communicating throughout the night.
The audience seemed to give us the benefit of the doubt, but on the stage it was work. It was all pain and way too much gain. We all had frayed nerves. How could things go from so effingly great the night before to where we found ourselves then? Eventually we just quit playing the keyboard songs and things seemed to level off though not quite at an altitude where we could get back into a pleasant groove.
As the evening and the audience bled away, we eventually got down to a small but appreciative group of Marbleheads who were digging the show, but we were just marking time. I wanna thank all those folks who cam to see our show like Stephanie, Dawn, Lee, Sil and that table of folks who were having the existential conversation around the hookah as we loaded out. Thanks also to Bash for booking us and to Amy, Denny and Brian for their wonderful hospitality. I wish we could've brought more people and kept more of them for you.
I was never so glad to put Wilmington in the rearview mirror as I was on the ride home. In fact, it was the first time ever I'd been happy to leave that town. If the ride back to Raleigh was a sentence the only punctuation it would've had was a bunch of questionmarks.
I felt like our show was all over the place both in what material we performed and how well, or unwell, we'd performed it. And I think I scared Donald when I told him I wanted to better define our sound to make all the material reflect our newer music, more or less.
We've come to a curious place for a band. The songs we've nearly finished recording sound very different from some of those we still enjoy performing and I'm curious if any audience outside The FlipSide can really ride along with us for an entire evening. The next time we play in Wilmington we'll bring the show you've all heard about, not the one from February 7th. We're all motivated to not let events get the better of us again. We'll prove it to you in a few weeks in Durham.
-Ski
February 4th, 2009 "Strikes and gutters, Gary, strikes and gutters." Laid off from the day gig today. I was beginning to think this might be the first economic downturn of my career that spared my own job. It was not to be. And that's too bad because I really liked working this job. At least it's not effective immediately. I have some time to find a new day gig. Any of you need a web developer or know someone who does? Get in touch!
Last Saturday night was a blast. Yeah. I always say that, but every BMB show is a blast. We played The FlipSide in Clayton. Played some new material. Partied with Mary, Calvin and Emily, Teresa, Nikki, Robby, Dena, Judy, Randy, Jill, Jill, Chas, Stephanie, Tracy, Christel, Rachel and David, among other Marbleheads. Thanks to Jodi and Cliff for having us back again. Thanks to Rich and Jessica for feeding us and drinking us all night!
We'll be back this Friday, February 6th, as our alter egos Dread34. This will be a night to remember. We've not performed as Dread34 in almost five years and the stage will be full of Dread34 alumni besides the four of us. Come to the show and see what I mean. Showtime's 9pm but Jodi's got a Jamaican menu planned for dinner, starting at 5pm. Get there early, 'cause you'll be competing with me for authentic Jamaican cuisine!
Oh, and I hope you've been enjoying the gig posters I've been putting into the blog. You can check out some more of them at gigposters.com. Dig.
See you this weekend in Clayton and Wilmington!
-Ski
January 9th, 2009 It's all dB's fault. I am now hooked on Facebook. dB told me I needed to check it out because it was a whole different social network than MySpace. And he even told me there was a Blue Marble Beat page on Facebook. So I got almost no work done today. It's all dB's fault! -Ski
January 1st, 2009 Happy New Year! It's very early in the morning of a brand new day in a brand new year. I spent NewYear's Eve in a quiet celebration at home with my family. No Amateur Night for me this year, but the band did have a busy holiday season. We've been recording and we played two shows during December.
Last saturday night, December 27th, we played a show at The FlipSide in Clayton, NC. It was a wonderful time spent with some old friends and some new ones. We had the room well packed despite the fog and rain. And what is it with it raining seemingly every night we play? Can we take credit for ending the drought in the eastern half of North Carolina? Need some irrigation? Wanna end a drought? Simply book Blue Marble Beat in your town! Anyway, thanks to Marbleheads, MySpace friends and FlipSide staff alike for treating us like rock stars: Barry, Michelle and Dave along with Cliff, Jodi, Maggie and Rich, Jill, Arlene, Zoe, Dena, Robby, Daniel and Stan, Ron and Rhonda, Chen.
Maybe we should visit Charlotte and Asheville.
We'll be back in Wilmington pretty soon and, man, are we looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with our Wilmington friends. You guys at the beach have never seen this version of the band. I think you'll dig. I've been doing a bit of marketing for our upcoming Wilmington show and in the process have made some new friends, one of whom called Bam, also wrote a nice bit about us on Machinegun Funk. Thanks, Bam!
We played a gig in Chapel Hill on December 20th, another cold and terribly rainy night. We played Bean & Barrel. It turned out to be an intimate show in a very cozy setting. Try the draught porter! You can see some photos from this gig and the next week's, too, in the Marbleheads album on our MySpace page. What, you don't MySpace? Come on. Join up and we'll be your friends! Just ask us. Thanks to Stephanie, Ryan, Becky, Jeff, Stan, Charlene and Troy for partying with us and to Jason, Jennifer and Jenn for their wonderful hospitality.
2008 was a year full of changes for Blue Marble Beat. We did a lot of soul searching the first half of the year. Fammon and D-dubz joined and we got back to doing what it is we do. We not only regained our creativity, but we got back down to the business of actually creating. I'm looking forward to sharing some of the music we've recorded with you, but like Ernest and Julio Gallo, we will sell no fries before their time.
In deciding the course of our future we also came to terms with our past. We tried to cobble a Dread34 reunion show together in November but being ten musicians who mostly have day jobs, families and other performing bands, we just couldn't make all the calendars work and play well together. We're gonna try again for a small show on Bob Marley's birthday, February 6th. More on that later.
Time for my first sleep of 2009. Good night and good luck!
-Ski